You Nose Better...

HEY FAM! It's been raining here a ton too. Not my favorite at all. And the running trail sounds super fun :) Question.... who is running for president? There is a bunch of political stuff happening around here and I was wondering! I have heard a little bit. 

THIS WEEK. WAS great. And stressful and busy. But nonetheless, great. So... a play by play... MONDAY we did our best to proselyte because we wanted to make up for all the time we spent traveling to the temple. So we met with a few people and did family home evening, we made Swedish pancakes and it was super fun! Our ward mission leader was just dying at how bad I am at cooking. He taught me how to not cut my fingers off haha. TUESDAY we went to Borlänge at like 5 in the morning and gave a bunch of presentations to a high school with the elders there. It was fun and scary. We said like two words and they were like, "you guys aren't from Sweden." Haha. But it went well. Then we came back and had the third worst lesson I have had as a missionary. Sweden sometimes sucks your soul. Like a vacuum. WEDNESDAY we went to Gubbängen in Stockholm for zone training and that was incredible. Just what I needed! And it was fun to see everyone. THURSDAY we had workovers, so Syster Modersitzki and King came up and we went on splits, both here in Gävle. The rest of the week was normal, but we were super exhausted from all the traveling. We shouldn't have to do any this week so that'll be good.

This week was fun, though. We met some new people, and I love doing that. I love being with Syster Kimball. She is SOOOO nice and loving. She is a great missionary too! We are always on the same page. Neither of us want to leave....ever. Alex came to church! He is the besssssst. We love him so much. He liked it a lot and stayed the whole time. Another investigator came! I just met her for the first time at church, but she said she had an experience where she felt like she was supposed to come to this specific church, and she has a desire to be baptized. We are really excited to meet with her! We had another really positive lesson, a guy who just said he wanted to be as happy as us, that he could see how happy we were. We had a lesson with Johnny too. I just love that kid so much. He just is so confused, he wants to know if there is a God and what will happen after this life. Please pray for him, he is the best!

I LOVE YOU GUYS! Have the best week ever. =)

Syster Stetler

Hej!

HEY! It's raining here a ton too so I know how you feel. I really miss Nevada. But it's beautiful and green, so I guess I need to pay the price. Big news, I went to the temple this week! I went with members and it was super fun. We did two sessions and I did the first one in Swedish and it was super super cool! Then I saw Johan Virtala in the second session (from Luleå) and that was fun to talk to him for just a bit. The temple was sooooo small and adorable! That was the highlight of the week.

Other than that, this week was all about organizing and figuring out how we are going to take over this other area and handle the ward by ourselves. We got asked to help in primary, Sunday school, and young women's haha. So it's been quite a bit of stress, but it was cool to hear how much President and Syster Beckstrand trust us! Let's see, what else was cool? We have gotten FHE to be bigger and a lot more fun! Johnny and two of his friends came and it was a blast! We also had a really great lesson with Alex. We had a translator there, who doesn't come too often either, and it was so good for both of them. Alex is the best! He has had an incredibly hard life and he isn't bitter to God at all. That's really powerful to see. He was going to come to church but he wasn't feeling well. We had a really good lesson with Ben too, and I think the rain held him back from coming. 

It's weird without Sister Giles and only having one companion, it's SUPER quiet now, but Sister Kimball and I do super well together! We are just about always on the same page. She is sooo sweet! I have gotten the best companions. 

This next week is going to be insane. We are going to Borlänge tomorrow, suuuuuper early because the ward mission leader REALLY wants us there with the elders to give a presentation to a school all day. So then we will come back and the next day go to Stockholm.... again. I feel like I go there every week. And then we have workovers (the STLs coming and going on splits with us, both here in Gävle) because we have so much we want to get done. It's going to be insane, but great! 

Just a spiritual thought, I remember Reed told me that President King said that if you go one day without reading the Book of Mormon, you put your spiritual safety in danger, or something like that. And I have found it to be true, not that mine is in danger, but there is a power that comes from reading the Book of Mormon that I don't receive from studying ANYTHING else, even good things. I always feel SO much better when I just read every single day. So I will encourage you all to do the same! 

I love you all =)

Syster Stätler

Baptismal Dates

Hey Everyone!

I had a WAY better week. We all felt good and we worked incredibly hard and had two people set dop dates! Brad and Alan both decided they want to work towards baptism this summer. We are so incredibly excited! We need a translator for Ali, so he can express himself better, but he is so sincere and he is hilarious. He dared us to run down the escalators backwards after our lesson haha. Brad's lesson was really cool. So we go over to the same family's house (Sjökvist's... AMAZING FAMILY) for dinner every Sunday... (and she is a professional baker, so it's incredibly good food) but anyways, we got invited to a different lady's house for dinner and had an incredible dinner! She lived in town so we had plenty of time to meet with Bailo afterwards, and he had a friend come over and we taught him too! He was really interested and had is going through a hard time and he took a Book of Mormon! It was all so inspired. And Syster Savage told me that Alvin (in Luleå) is doing great and can't wait to be baptized! We got a lot of potential investigators this week, and we also met a lot of less actives that we are trying to help come back to church! 

Gävle has SO much work to be done! It's unlike other places in Sweden. People are willing to talk and listen and are just more outgoing, and that's good... and bad. There are a lot of people that want to learn here, but there's also a lot of weirdos. And it gets really annoying. I thought the bus driver was interested today, he was asking all about our name tags, but his questions went from "What's your church about?" to "Can you marry people outside of your church?" to "Can you go on a date with me?" Super clever... And unfortunately, that wasn't the only time this week. It's super frustrating.

Rant #2: Remember when I got kicked out of a University because I am Mormon? I also got kicked out of a psych ward.... long story haha. But anyways, we asked the Elders to come give a blessing and a worker told us "We needed to go outside, they don't want a Christian meeting going on in there." So we go outside, and she says "You need to go further than that." I was so mad. I feel like religious freedom is seriously fading here. I was so mad, but I bit my lip and sang "I'm Proud to be an American" out loud and I felt a lot better.

What else happened? Syster Giles threw a folded card into a homeless guy's hood JUST as the bus doors were closing.... and.... he showed up at church! So that was funny and also really cool!

I don't have all too much to say, I just am so excited to talk next week! I love you guys so much! =)

Love,

Syster Stetler